Temporary Color For Beards

My husband has a lot of white hair in his beard, mostly. There is a little in his mustache and sideburns, but his beard is what bothers him most.

He has been using Just For Men "Real Black" color every few months or so and refuses to shave his beard and mustache off. Just For Men is simple enough to use and claims to get rid of gray in 5 minutes. But it doesn't seem to work very well on white hair. It does color the hair and his beard and mustache look nice and black to match his hair color, but to me it seems to only last around one week. He claims it probably would last longer if he wasn't trimming his beard and mustache every week. I guess that can be true compared to me coloring my hair, for when I color my hair is long and it's not as noticeable when the roots begin to show again, and I can shape my hair differently, whereas his can't with his beard. His beard is very short and trimmed, so you see more hair growth.

He says there is no fragrance and that you just need to be careful to not get the color on your skin or it WILL stain your skin and then you have to scrub it off - that hurts. He also said the color doesn't burn - but scrubbing the color off your skin is what irritates your face. So be careful.

The color comes in a gel no-drip formula.

He figures he gets 6-8 months or so of use - only because he colors once every two months, if that.

Directions for use:

> Put clear tray down.

> Put on plastic gloves (which don't fit most large men's hands).

> Squeeze a line out into the clear tray from the Color Base tube included. Color Base will go on one side of the raised line inside the mixing tray.

> Squeeze an equal amount of Color Developer into the mixing tray onto the other side of the raised line.

> Mix both together with the plastic end of the brush until blended completely.

> Clean off plastic end of brush and tube ends - replace caps.

> Quickly apply color with the brush onto dry hair, in an up and down motion to cover all of beard, mustache and sideburn hairs.

> Do Not massage into skin.

> Begin timer and clean up the brush, tray and anything else needed to be cleaned.

> Rinse off color with warm water in the shower until water runs clear.

> It is also recommended you not use soap, but use shampoo for colored hair.

> Towel Dry.

> The product can become darker if left on longer than 5 minutes, so watch the timer.

Overall this is a decent product but it would be nice for them to come out with a color that would work on coarse white hair. My husband says if he faithfully colored it every two weeks, it would be fine. But there's a reason they make a 5 minute hair color for men - many of them won't bother to color as often as needed and surely would not wait 45 minutes or more like we do when we color our hair.

Update On Apr 20, 2010: My husband needed to color his hair and beard for Easter, as the men in our stage performance had to grow it out for the part of a Disciple. He probably will keep coloring his beard with this brand because it's easy enough to use and he doesn't need my help.